Kieran Brown, Loving You Review

Where Voice Meets Vision: Kieran Brown’s Cohesive Loving You

By Sylvannia Garutch

Kieran Brown’s Loving You is a program that is a showcase of collaborative musicianship, intelligent arranging, and the stylistic depth of Brown’s singing. It’s a record for jazz fans that shows the next generation of vocalists arrives with vocal polish and a keen sense of group interplay and sonic identity.

Brown’s clarity and cohesion are supported by Tyler Henderson on piano, Joey Ranieri on bass, and Joe Peri on drums. This rhythm section anchors the album with agility and tonal sensitivity. Brown demonstrates an unusually mature understanding of how to shape phrasing within that framework, alternating between commanding and conversational depending on the song’s architecture.

Take “Do It Again,” for example. This lesser-covered Gershwin/DeSylva standard could easily turn syrupy in the wrong hands, but here, Aaron Matson’s clean arrangement foregrounds a relaxed swing groove, punctuated with horn textures that shift colors via tasteful use of horn colors. Brown’s vocal entrance is engaging with her assured delivery as the rhythm section’s laid-back propulsion gives her the air she needs to accent the swing beat.

That sense of dialogue carries over to Latin jazz on “Meditation,” where Brown leans into the elongated Jobim melody with elasticity and poise. Her push-and-pull phrasing adds shape to every line, and the rhythm section of Matson’s nylon-string guitar and Peri’s soft-touch drums follows her every inflection. The groove doesn’t just support her; it breathes with her. This track is a textbook example of how a rhythm section can play responsively under a relaxed bossa nova.

Brown’s vocal identity expands further on “Little Bits of Magic,” one of the album’s two original songs. The feel palette shifts as the groove locks into a straight-eighth feel that blends R&B and contemporary jazz inflections. The result is an enjoyable flow in the album’s aesthetic. Brown’s vocal approach also adapts with a more breathy, slightly behind-the-beat, and full of a sultry confidence that reveals another dimension of her artistry. It’s the kind of track that signals her ease in crossover or sync work. Her scatting is excellent.

“Somewhere” closes the record with cinematic hue, thanks in large part to Joe Block’s luminous string arrangement. Opening with piano and strings, the tone is immediately romantic, evoking Bernstein’s original theatrical weight while also giving Brown the space to lean into her showtune roots. Her delivery here is shaped by arc as each phrase swells with liveliness. It’s another angle in her vocal arsenal, and one that underscores her ability to move between styles while maintaining a centered musical identity.

The album’s real strength lies in its balance: Brown is the star and the collaborator, the interpreter and the arranger, the student of the tradition and the creative force building its next branch. She’s surrounded herself with musicians and producers who understand that a debut should honor the past and signal the future. Every track here feels like it was built with purpose. Brown is a well-rounded artist with long-haul potential. Loving You is a very strong debut album.